Ripples In The Water
by MaidenInTheMoon
Summary: There are some things you just can't stomach even as a ninja. Sakura finds herself in such a situation. There is only one person to turn to for answers, and he's never going to give a straight answer. A look into Sakura's mind. LIGHT KakaSaku. OneShot


A/N: This is somewhat of an experimental story. I'm using it to explore some of the philosophical questions I feel would present themselves in the ninja world, and I'm also settling into the writing style I feel comfortable with now. Please bear with me as this story is rather long and muted. Also, whatever "props" seem oddly Harry Potter-esque are purely coincidental. If you can hold out to the very, very end there is a smidgen (just a smidgen) of KakaSaku.

* * *

**Ripples in the Water**

* * *

The room smelled as it always did, like formaldehyde and cleaning solution. An old, fluorescent light flickered wearily from its place on the roof, and it emitted little glassy clicks every few minutes. Bathed in the ghostly green light, the pristinely white-tiled floor looked ill and the compartmentalized walls of the room appeared sullen and eerie. 

A pink-haired medic entered from a side door, and immediately the frosty chill of the room attacked the unclothed parts of her arms and legs. She shivered a little, but not once did her eyes leave the clipboard in her hand. The girl chewed briefly on the eraser end of her writing utensil before bringing the pencil down to check a box.

_Number 47_

It was at the far end of the room, and as Sakura approached the compartment, she slipped a pair of latex gloves over her hands. The box slid open with the lightest of pulls, and the medic cast a wary eye down at what lay in front of her.

Judging by his appearance, the man had been in his early thirties. He had been quite attractive with a strong nose, pale skin—which Sakura assumed would have been less so were he not dead—and shoulder-length black hair. The girl's brow furrowed a little when she noticed two symmetrical lines running from the inner corners of his eyes down towards his cheekbones. He resembled Uchiha Itachi, a man she had spent half of her life hating.

Sakura snatched a small flashlight from her lab coat pocket. With the third and index fingers of her left hand she gently pushed the man's eyelids open, and with her right hand she held the flashlight up to his blank eyes. The irises were as green as jade, much like her own.

She shook her head at the foolishness that had overcome her.

Sasuke had killed his brother years ago, not long before Naruto had found the boy and nearly killed them both—again—trying to drag Sasuke's sorry self back to the leaf. Sakura still remembered that day. She had been doing filing work in the Hokage's office when a small entourage of people burst in through the door. Naruto was at the head of the group, and he'd collapsed on the office floor right after dropping Sasuke's battered and bleeding body in front of Sakura.

Tsunade had not known what to do with Sasuke, mainly because Sasuke hadn't really known what to do with himself now that his brother was dead. In the end he'd been pardoned of his crimes because he'd been the one to kill Orochimaru. The Godaime had then hastily thrown Team Kakashi back together in an attempt to heal the camaraderie that they'd forged and then undone as children.

Sakura picked the man's body up with ease, and she carried it to a cold, steel table in the middle of the room. There was already a box on the table with all the belongings that the hunter-nins had found on the man. Sakura peeked inside. She carefully sifted through some bloody clothing, a deck of cards, a shuriken pouch, a diary, a kunai holster, and at the bottom of the box she found a headband protector.

The stone insignia was barely visible beneath an old burn mark.

"Haruno-kun?"

Sakura's head snapped towards the door where a hunter-nin now stood. His face was hidden behind a grinning mask, but his gloved hands held a report of some sort. Sakura nodded lightly. The man took that as his cue, and he walked over and handed her the paper. The hunter-nin then tapped his mask in acknowledgement and disappeared.

Sakura briskly thumbed through the report. Number 47 was actually a missing-nin from the Stone. Instinctively Sakura felt around his neck for his dog tags and matched the name on the page with the name on the silver plate. Nawaki Jinshiro.

She looked back at the report. He'd been killed by a powerful shinobi monk while trying to steal a secret arts scroll from the Fire country's west temple. Some hunter-nins had recognized him from a description in the bingo book and had dragged his dead body back to Konoha for dissection.

And it was Sakura the medic who was now charged with the unsavory task of extracting Nawaki Jinshiro's jutsu secrets from his cold, defenseless corpse.

She pulled two sets of operating utensils from the pockets in her coat, and she then ducked underneath the table to make sure that the larger autopsy tools were present and clean. Sakura reappeared over the corpse with the obscenely large sternum-cutting scissors in her hands.

Three hours later a small mountain of chicken-scratch notes sat on the small desk next to the operating table. A few haphazardly-wrapped scrolls lay obediently on the ground where Sakura had cast them after sealing some jutsu inside. The pink-haired girl wiped her forehead with her arms, careful to avoid letting her bloody gloves touch her skin. She looked down at the cadaver once again, and something caught her eye.

A small, gold necklace lay in the body's open chest. The worn gold clashed with the grayish-red of the dead flesh, and Sakura wondered how she had missed the item when she'd felt for the dog tags. Upon closer inspection, Sakura realized the necklace was actually a locket. Curious, she hastily cut it off the man's neck with a pair of scissors.

Deciding it was a good time for a break, Sakura threw her bloodied latex gloves into a hazardous objects trashcan and headed for the door. The light outside was much brighter, and it assaulted Sakura's eyes which had grown accustomed to the dimness. The morgue was in the basement of the hospital, and as Sakura got into the elevator and punched the button for the lobby, she looked down at the little gold locket in her hand. She would stop by the supply room to grab a few more empty scrolls incase the locket had some chakra stored away in it.

The staff room was empty save for a few nurses resting before their night shifts. Sakura nodded politely to them before helping herself to a cup of coffee a settling alone in a corner armchair. She opened a scroll and carefully spread it out on the table in front of her. Sakura then turned the locket over in her hand and pushed on the little hinge. To her surprise, it came open easily. She had expected it to be sealed. Drawing her hands into a chakra suppression seal, she looked down at the opened locket ready to extract whatever was inside. Instead, she gasped.

There was nothing unusual inside the locket. In the left panel was a relatively new photo of a pretty woman. The right panel was devoid of a picture, but scratched on the gold back was the name "Keiko." Sakura looked at the photo of the woman again. She was smiling and appeared to be holding something. Sakura squinted and held the locket closer to her face. Her heart skipped a beat when she finally made out of what the woman had in her arms. It was an infant wrapped in a blanket.

Sakura downed her coffee. The scalding hot liquid seared her throat, and she dashed out of the break room still wincing from the burning pain in her mouth. Her break had taken less than five minutes, and soon she was back in the morgue standing over the half-dissected body of the missing-nin. Pulling on a fresh pair of gloves, Sakura finished her analysis of the corpse, cleaned up her area, and stored the remains back in compartment number 47.

She then tucked the man's diary insider her lab coat and turned off the light to the morgue.

* * *

The girl sat on her bed with her legs folded and tucked close to her body. She had pajamas on, and her hair was wet from a shower. But Sakura had her eyes pressed into her palms, and a few beads of water continuously ran down from her wrist to her elbow. 

The diary lay open in front of her.

_May 15__th_

_Keiko and I have decided it's time to leave the stone. She's with child and once she starts showing, people are going to begin asking questions. It's not worth staying here and having the Tsuchikage find out what we've done. She's been my student for twelve years. I have to protect her from this._

_July 21__st_

_It's been about two months since we've left. She is getting bigger. We're going to the Fire country tomorrow. It isn't safe to stay in Stone; there are hunters everywhere._

_November 21__st_

_I felt the baby kicking today. Keiko was elated. I'm a little worried that we can't properly nourish our child since we're on the run, but I can only try my hardest. _

_December 18__th_

_We stayed up all night talking. Keiko believes that she ruined my life and made us live this way. She said that I should go back to the stone and tell the council I was trying to stop her from defecting. She said she can try and make it alone. I yelled at her. I said to her that even though we are ninja, what we have is much more than what most ninja will ever know. We have love, and we are going to have a child. No matter how successful I was in the village, I would give it up in a heartbeat to have what I have now. _

_January 25__th_

_Hunters came horribly close last night. We had to move at the last minute. I didn't expect to see Stone hunters this far in Fire country. It's getting hard because it's almost time for the baby to come, and Keiko can't get around as fast. We've chosen names. If it's a boy we're going to call him Isho, after our country, but if it's a girl we're going to name her Hika, after the country we've taken refuge in._

_February 12__th_

_Hika was born today. She is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen._

_April 30__th_

_We took Hika to a photographer in one of this country's small towns. I took my mother's locket when we left, and I want to put a picture of Keiko and Hika in it._

_May 15__th_

_It's been a year since we left the stone. Money is wearing thin. We are near a temple in the west that I've heard stories of. It is said to possess a magnificent scroll on the ninja arts that collectors have been trying to curry for years. Perhaps if I can get that scroll we can sell it._

_June 4__th_

_Keiko doesn't want me to go. She says we should just get normal jobs in one of the smaller villages, but I just don't think that's safe. Konoha ninja are smart, and they might recognize us from a bingo book. I'm going to go tonight._

* * *

"Sakura-chan! You look horrible." 

Sakura cast Naruto a dark, _you think?_ kind of look, and the boy grinned awkwardly and took his seat next to her. Sasuke sat down on the other side of Sakura and picked up a menu from the center of the table.

"Honestly Sakura, did you not sleep at all last night?" asked Sasuke as his dark eyes traveled to the charcoal-colored bags that stained Sakura's face.

"I had to do a chakra autopsy on a missing-nin from Stone yesterday." Sakura began.

Naruto wrinkled his nose, and even Sasuke's expression contorted somewhat. This made Sakura smirk a little bit on the inside. There were just some things she did that even her boys could never handle. Groping around in a cadaver's open chest cavity was one of them.

"So anyways, I found this locket on the man, and inside there was a picture of this woman and her child," Sakura continued. "The man kept a diary, which they found on him when the hunter-nins brought him back. I read the diary last night."

"And?" asked Sasuke in an uninterested kind of way. His eyes were still glued to the menu, and Sakura supposed he was more concentrated on whether to get gyoza or yakitori. Naruto was at least looking at Sakura, but he was simultaneously polishing a kunai with his napkin.

Sakura sighed. Should she tell them the rest of what she had discovered or should she just forget what she'd read the previous night altogether? She absently drummed her fingers against the tablecloth for a few moments and shook her head.

"There was just a lot to read. I didn't get much sleep because I was up so late."

Sasuke looked over his menu and raised an eyebrow at her. Perhaps he was perturbed that she'd just told the lamest story he'd ever heard. Naruto at least cast Sakura a sympathetic look and continued polishing the kunai.

"You work too hard," said Sasuke while looking at the waitress coming to take their orders.

"Agreed," answered Naruto.

- - - - -

"Sakura, WAKE UP!"

At the sound of her name, the girl cracked open a bleary eye and looked up from her desk. She'd had her arms folded and had been napping in the nook of her elbow. A few moments later an angry looking sandy-haired woman came into focus, and Sakura's stomach went cold with fear.

"Shishou! Sorry! I was just—"

"Sleeping?"

"Sorry shishou," said Sakura again, and Tsunade shook her head in frustration.

"Get up Sakura, I'm going to give you an assignment." said Tsunade, the anger at least ebbing in her voice.

Sakura got up, smoothed out the wrinkles in her skirt, and followed her mentor into her office. Tsunade took her seat in her chair and unrolled a short scroll. She beckoned Sakura to come closer to her desk to observe.

"Sakura, I'm thinking of adding you to the roster of jounin teachers next year," began Tsunade.

"M-Me?" asked Sakura incredulously as she pointed to herself.

"No, the other Haruno Sakura in this room," answered Tsunade sarcastically. "The jounin teachers are running thin, and there've always been fewer kunoichi teachers available. There are three academy students slated to graduate next year, and well, they're not unlike the team seven you, Naruto and Sasuke were together. I've decided that the best teacher for them would be you."

Sakura felt her jaw drop, and she quickly pushed it back up.

"But what about Kakashi-sensei? He trained us, can't he train some kids who are kind of like us? Or maybe you should just divvy them up between the sannin again, although Orochimaru being dead is a bit of a—"

"This is not a debate, Sakura." Tsunade cut her off. "You're going to be a jounin teacher for this team. Now I want you to shadow Kakashi and his current team for at least a week to see how the system works, understood?" Tsunade was glaring at Sakura in a way the girl knew only too well, and she nodded sullenly and turned to leave.

Kakashi's current team—only his second to date—had a convenient, week-long low rank escort mission to the sun country. Sakura decided it was the perfect time to tag along to fulfill her hours, and as she was packing her backpack for the trip, she suddenly had the impulse to pack the necklace and the diary.

She met the trio of genin at the main gates and introduced herself. Kakashi's current team was nothing like what her own had been. Yumi, the girl, was loud, confident and combative. She channeled Ino much more than she did Sakura. The two boys Tomo and Hidori were very sweet and very friendly with each other. They treated Yumi graciously and respectfully, and they reminded Sakura of Tsunade's two henchmen, Kotetsu and Izumo. Yumi happily informed Sakura that they were to pick up their client at a small spa town outside of the leaf.

Fourty-five minutes later Sakura was still waiting with the group of genin. Tomo and Hidori had begun a game of shougi, while Yumi paced dramatically around the gates mumbling curses at Kakashi under her breath. Sakura sat on a rock and huffed. She'd forgotten how horrible Kakashi's habits were.

Exactly an hour later, a puff of smoke announced the arrival of the last member of the group.

"You're LATE!" screamed Yumi and Sakura simultaneously, and both girls waved accusatory fingers at the man with the mask. He lifted his hand in acknowledgement.

"Yo. I found fifty ryo on the ground and had to return it to its owner," began Kakashi, but as usual the venomous glares coming from his subordinates stopped him from continuing his obviously ludicrous story.

He coughed.

"Well, it looks like we have a new student today—"

"Can we just go, Kakashi-sensei?" whined Yumi, and he nodded and waved them off. They began their trek down the path through the forest, and Sakura fell instep with Kakashi while the genin team went ahead.

"Hello Kakashi-sensei, it's been a while," said Sakura.

"Mm, it has," acknowledged Kakashi.

"Did Tsunade-shishou tell you while I'm here?"

"She wants to make you a jounin instructor, I hear."

"Yah--is it hard being a jounin teacher?" asked Sakura.

"Depends on what kind of team you get, I suppose," answered the man.

"What if I get a jinchuuriki and an Uchiha?" Sakura asked playfully.

"That would be tough considering—"

"Kidding, kidding," answered Sakura quickly.

"But I hear the team you're getting isn't much better than team seven," Kakashi continued.

Sakura nodded. She didn't know what to say to that. They walked the rest of the way in silence. By nightfall, they'd reached the Fire country spa town called Hamayoto, and there they settled in a cozy inn for the evening. Their client had agreed to set out with them in the morning.

Over dinner the genin plagued Sakura with questions about being a medic and a jounin. They seemed to forget altogether that their own teacher was one of the most accomplished ninja in Konoha's history. But Sakura quickly remembered that team seven hadn't really thought Kakashi was all that amazing either.

"Tell us about some of your most scary fights!" demanded Hidori enthusiastically as a few grains of rice flew out of his mouth.

"Well . . . I once had to fight a guy who was a puppet," offered Sakura as she cast a desperate gaze towards Kakashi. His team had far too many questions for her liking.

"If he was a puppet wouldn't it be really easy to beat him? I bet I could fight a puppet! I'd just cut his strings," mused Tomo.

"Sure Tomo. I bet you could easily beat the guy who killed the most powerful Kazekage in the Sand's history and turned him into a human puppet. Oh, did I mention he also single-handedly defeated a country with his army of marionettes?"

The three genin looked at Sakura. Hidori's mouth hung open, and Yumi's eye twitched.

They ate in silence for a while, and Sakura suddenly felt rather smug.

"Do you do amazing things in the hospital like healing the dead, Sakura-san?" asked Yumi as she delicately sipped her miso soup.

"Uhh . . . not really. I spent the day before yesterday dissecting a missing-nin in the morgue beneath the basement," answered Sakura, as if the genin would find her macabre adventures scintillating.

Tomo and Hidori blanched, and Yumi set down her soup with unnecessary swiftness. She didn't eat anything else for the rest of the night.

After dinner the genin loitered around the same way team seven used to. Yumi spent some time soaking in the hot springs, and Tomo and Hidori finished the game of shougi they'd started while waiting for Kakashi. Sakura and Kakashi sat on the roof of the inn keeping an eye on the genin and reading. Kakashi was engrossed in his usual Icha-Icha series, and Sakura flipped casually through a medical manual.

"Oi, Kakashi-sensei," called Sakura after she'd seen the genin trickle off to bed.

"Hm?"

"Let's trade books," she suggested as a mischievous grin spread on her face.

"Yours doesn't look interesting," responded Kakashi without lifting his eyes from the pages of the smutty novel.

"But I'm bored," complained Sakura.

"You can go do something else."

Sakura threw Kakashi an angry pout, and she hopped off the roof. A couple minutes later Kakashi saw her reappear. She was now wearing only a towel and was heading towards the hot springs. He suddenly felt inclined to visit the hot spring himself, at least this time Tomo and Hidori wouldn't be using it as an excuse to get his mask off.

The pink-haired kunoichi plopped down in the water, and the feeling of complete relaxation washed over her. She scooted towards the tall barrier that divided the men's side from the women's side, and she leaned against the wall. Her shoulder blades rested comfortably against the smooth bamboo.

"It's a nice night, isn't it?" said a voice from the other side of the barrier.

Sakura jumped an inch out of the water and had to contain herself from screaming.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she hissed. "What're you doing scaring me like that?"

She heard a soft chuckle.

"Sorry, Sorry," said Kakashi, and Sakura's frown disappeared with his apology.

"It is nice," responded Sakura.

They didn't say anything after that, but Sakura could feel Kakashi's presence directly on the other side of the wall. She relaxed into the water and felt as if she were sitting back to back with the other ninja.

"Something's been bothering you, hasn't it?" Kakashi suddenly said, and somewhere in the distance a cricket broke off chirping.

"W-What?" stuttered Sakura. She'd been caught off guard.

"You've been more distant than usual," suggested Kakashi.

"Have I?" mused Sakura, and she looked up at the stars wondering what to say next.

There was silence again for a while, and the cricket restarted chirping rhythmically in the night.

"There's something I want you to see," Sakura finally said to break the silence.

Kakashi had taken the sound of Sakura wading away as his signal to get going too. By the time he was dried and dressed, Sakura was already waiting for him. She suggested they go somewhere else, and soon they were sitting in a small restaurant with a plate of dango and a bottle of sake between them.

In the hot springs Sakura had realized that the person she could talk to about the missing-nin was Kakashi. She'd known it all along and just hadn't thought of it. After all, Kakashi was the one she always found herself consulting when something was plaguing her. Sure the man was usually nowhere to be found, and she often had to bribe him with a bowl of ramen to get him to listen to her, but his responses to her deepest, darkest problems were always honest and comforting.

Sakura took a sip out of her little sake cup, and she pulled the locket and diary out of her pack. She passed the two objects to Kakashi who picked them up and looked them over. He first popped open the locket and examined the picture of Keiko and Hika before he opened the diary to the first page and began reading. Sakura watched his one eye traveling over the pages the entire time, and she poured herself another shot of sake.

"This is what's been bothering you?" asked Kakashi quietly as he closed to the diary.

Sakura nodded hesitantly. Kakashi's tone made it sound as if a dead tanuki on the road had been sending her into fits of agony.

"Sakura . . . we're shinobi. This is—"

"He defected from his country for her!" Sakura blurted out before she could stop herself. Kakashi looked at her, his lone eye wide with surprise.

"He took a student to bed, Sakura," Kakashi began, his voice low and assertive. "That's a punishable offense even in our country. I can't imagine what the punishment would be in Stone where the laws are much more stringent."

"So? She was obviously of age, and he made it painstakingly clear that they were in love," argued Sakura.

"You sound like twelve-year-old Sakura again," warned Kakashi, and he tightened his grip on the small sake cup.

"And what if I do?" Sakura shot back. "I'm tired of what we are, Kakashi-sensei. I'm twenty-one, and I've spent half my life putting broken bodies back together. I've been on three dates since I was fifteen—two of which were with Naruto. Tsunade-shishou is always telling me that work comes first and love comes second, but that wasn't the case for her, was it? I see her looking at the children in the academy. I think she's always wondering why she doesn't have kids of her own. It's probably because her Dan-sama, the only person she ever loved, died before they could do anything about a family. And now I read this man's diary, and I wonder if I would have done the same thing. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

Sakura was breathing heavily now, and Kakashi simply looked at her. Her greens eyes pierced him, as if daring him to respond. He had seen the girl this upset before, but never over something like this. It suddenly occurred to him that Sakura had simply buried her younger-self deep within her the whole time. She had put on a show for the rest of the world which believed she had completely gotten rid of that weak kunoichi too concerned with love and not enough with ninjutsu.

"Well?" demanded Sakura.

"Don't think this is the first time I've heard this rant," said Kakashi very simply.

Sakura blinked at him.

"Have you ever heard of a medic named Rin?"

"Sure. Her name is in the medic-nin section of the memorial stone. She died a couple years after the Fire-Stone war didn't she?"

Kakashi nodded.

"She was my teammate. Our relationship was not unlike yours and Sasuke's."

"So basically she loved you and you treated her like trash," Sakura ground out.

"Hardly," answered Kakashi. "Our third teammate died when we were thirteen, and he made me promise to take care of her. I can't say that I loved Rin, but I don't pretend to not wonder what would have happened had she survived. She liked to yell at me a lot about the same things you just did."

Sakura was speechless.

"This man, Nawaki Jinshiro," Kakashi began as he pointed to the diary. "I can't really condone what he did, but if you feel the way you do because of his widow and child, I can understand why."

"Kakashi-sensei, has there been anyone else since Rin died?" asked Sakura, suddenly changing the subject.

There was a moment's pause, and Kakashi took a shot of sake.

"I don't know," he finally answered. "Sometimes I envy people like Kurenai and Asuma. It's almost as if being together was obvious to them. But we are shinobi, and where there is pleasure there is almost always pain. We know that fact going in. It's simply a matter of whether or not you want to take the risk."

"I think I do," whispered Sakura. She looked away from Kakashi.

Kakashi shrugged. "I hear Sasuke's still trying to rebuild his clan."

Sakura blushed and cast him a very dirty glare.

* * *

The escort mission lasted exactly a week, and save for a few skirmishes with petty thieves, nothing happened. Kakashi was just as ineffective of a teacher as Sakura remembered. In the sun country they trained a bit with water walking, and Sakura taught Yumi a low-level fire jutsu just to make Tomo and Hidori jealous. Kakashi happily announced that Sakura was going to make a much better teacher than he did. 

They arrived back in Konoha a week later with Tomo complaining about how lame the mission had been. Yumi rushed home to preen, and the boys followed suit, waving goodbye to the two jounin.

"What are you going to do now?" asked Kakashi as he walked Sakura home.

"I'm going to return the man's things to his wife," answered Sakura honestly.

"Isn't that tampering with evidence?"

"If something they never knew they had goes missing, I don't think it will be much of a problem."

"Aren't you going to have a hard time tracking the woman down?"

"I think I'm going to borrow Pakkun. He rather likes me; we use the same conditioner and all," said Sakura playfully.

"You can't have Pakkun without my permission," said Kakashi lightly.

"Can I have your permission Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura sweetly.

"Maybe I'll just go with you. It might be dangerous if you go by yourself."

"You just want to meet this Keiko woman yourself, don't you. You want to find out what was going through her head when she defected from her country," said Sakura in an accusatory tone.

"Maybe."

* * *

The academy graduation that year occured on a beautiful spring day. The mood in the air was festive and boisterous, and sakura petals blew lazily around the academy grounds. Twelve teams graduated, although nine were surely going to be sent back to school. Sakura met her team the next day. It was a windy morning, and she took the three to the steps beneath the sky bridge. A crow flew above them croaking what sounded like "idiot," and Sakura scanned the three with an amused eye. 

"Okay. So tell me about yourselves, maybe your likes and dislikes, hobbies, life goals . . " suggested Sakura.

A brunette boy with deep, purple eyes answered first.

"What about you sensei? We don't know anything about you!" he shouted.

"Your name?" asked Sakura towards the boy who had just spoken out.

"Yamada Kiyoshi!" he declared proudly.

Sakura nodded.

"Well, my name is Haruno Sakura. I like a lot of things. I dislike a lot of things too. I have some hobbies, and I'd rather keep my life goals to myself."

Kiyoshi looked at his other two teammates, and he whispered something. Sakura suspected she knew very well what he had just said. She then asked Kiyoshi to begin the introduction.

"Yamada Kiyoshi. I like soba and making soba. I don't like the time it takes for soba noodles to cool so I can eat them. I like training so I can become a great ninja! My dream is to one day surpass the sixth Hokage!"

"The sixth Hokage?" asked Sakura. "We only have a fifth, you know."

"The sixth Hokage is Uzumaki Naruto-sama!" declared Kiyoshi. "I look up to him! He's the best ninja in the village, my father said so."

"Baka," said the other boy quite suddenly. "Everyone knows the best ninja in the village is Uchiha Sasuke."

Kiyoshi shot the boy a look of pure poison.

"How about you next?" Sakura waved her hand lazily towards the girl. She was on the brink of bursting out in fits of laughter.

"Takeuchi Rai," began the girl. "I like . . . someone. My dream is to one day . . ."

"Okay, Okay," said Sakura dismissively. She was in no mood to hear the girl squeak and see her faint. The girl's chocolate brown eyes were already sneaking furtively in the direction of the boy who had supported Sasuke.

"And you?" Sakura finally asked.

"Kazu Amida," said the boy plainly. "I dislike most things," Rai's face fell at this statement. "I don't have any hobbies, and my goal is to one day defeat the best ninja in our village, Uchiha Sasuke."

Sakura could feel a rib cracking. It was too hard not to laugh.

"Okay! You guys are all interesting," she finally said. "But odds are you're getting sent back to the academy unless you can pass survival training!"

"Survival training?" all three said in unison.

"Meet me at training ground four tomorrow morning at five-thirty. Oh, and don't eat breakfast. You'll throw up."

* * *

He was sitting at their usual table looking nonchalantly over the menu with his single, dark eye. The table was set for two, and there was already a hot cup of tea on her side when she sat down. 

"They are . . . exactly like us," Sakura finally said in exasperation, and she let out a long sigh for emphasis.

Kakashi looked at her.

"One boy is completely hyperactive, and his goal it to surpass Naruto who he thinks is the best and is going to become the sixth Hokage. The other boy wants to 'defeat' Sasuke, who he is convinced is actually the best."

"And the girl?"

"I cut her off. She stared at the Sasuke-ish boy the entire time."

"She'll come around."

"She better."

"Are you testing them with the bells tomorrow?"

"I don't have a choice, do I?"

"They'll pass."

"I know."

The team passed the next day after Sakura had sufficiently traumatized them. Amida had even managed to touch the bell, and as expected Kiyoshi wound up tied to the tree trunk.

Later that week Sakura met Kakashi again to report on what had transpired. It soon became somewhat of a standard for her to see the man at least once a week and complain about her team. He disappeared every now and then with our without his genin for missions, but he always came back with a willingness to listen to her. As the months passed after meeting Keiko, Sakura began to take more and more risks. She went on three dates with three nice guys, but each time she found herself simply wishing to befriend her suitors and nothing else.

Winter came quickly that year, and on a hazy, snowy morning Sakura took her team out on a mission to clear the snow from the daimyo's mansion. The three genin huffed and puffed in the cold air. Sakura sat high in a frozen tree and divided her time between watching them toil and looking into the distance over a snow-covered field. Fat flakes continued to fall, and Sakura supposed the work would never get done. Sometime in the afternoon, she caught sight of a most curious picture.

Someone was out in the field building what appeared to be a snowman. When she blinked and looked again, the person was gone.

"How do you like my snowman?" said a voice right next to her ear.

She quite nearly fell out of the tree.

"Never. Do. That. Again." She demanded. "Aren't you supposed to be on a mission?"

"I was just on my way back and saw you guys working hard, so I thought I'd stop by and say hello."

They sat besides each other for the rest of the afternoon watching Sakura's genin team turn red with cold. Sakura looped her arm in Kakashi's, and she leaned in so he could hear her whisper.

"I went on a date again last week."

"And?" asked Kakashi.

"And nothing," she answered quietly.

"I'm sorry that it's not working out for you, although it's understandably difficult for a kunoichi as strong as you. Most male ninja just aren't as good as you are."

Sakura said nothing. She lay her head on Kakashi's shoulder.

"Still," Kakashi continued. "It's funny that a ninja who's so ready and willing to lay down her heart is having such a hard time doing it."

"If it's still about risks," Sakura finally said. "I think I need to take an even bigger one."

And she kissed him lightly on the cheek.

Somewhere on the ground Kiyoshi was screaming.

"SAKURA-SENSEI!! CAN WE GO NOW??? WE CAN'T FEEL OUR FINGERS AND I THINK AMIDA IS ABOUT TO FAINT"

"YOU WISH, DOBE!"

* * *

-Fin

I hope you liked it. Please review.


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